Will Edmonton Oilers fans cheer or boo Taylor Hall? Mostly one, maybe a bit of the other

As game goes on, Hall lovers and Hall haters could well incite each other

This in from Taylor Hall, him talking to the media about the welcome he expects in Edmonton: “I think I’ll get a good applause… That’s the kind of fans & people that are here in Edmonton.”

After Hall made the comment, numerous fans took to Twitter, most of them expressing gratitude for Hall’s play when he was an Oiler.

My take

Some Edmonton fans adore Taylor Hall and believe that the team made an ugly mistake in moving him, possibly costing Edmonton several Stanley Cup wins. Other fans see him as greatly over-rated, a forward who played a losing brand of hockey highlighted by far too many turnovers at the offensive blue. I suspect, however, that both of these camps are small minorities.

The vast majority? They have plenty of good memories of Hall, such as his great daring in making numerous thrilling, lightning-fast moves around the net to score or set up goals. The majority give credit to Hall for being able to lift up almost anyone who played on the same line as him and help bring out that player’s best attacking game. At the same time, in rating Hall as a player, the majority see a few blemishes, such as a propensity for turnovers, along with a lingering concern that due to his wild style of play he might not have the greatest longevity as a top attacking NHL winger. It’s also the case that Hall was part of a promising group of young players that for numerous reasons weren’t able to lift up the Oilers franchise. Most fans realize this, and any bitterness they might otherwise have had about the deal is informed by that realization. Hall was a brilliant attacker, but not the rare kind of superstar who could raise up a team on his own.

Of course Hall is right in his assessment here. As one fan on Twitter, @StrunzoSays, reminded me, if Oilers fans cheered for Pocklington, who sold Gretzky, they will certainly cheer for Hall, who never wanted to be traded from here even as the team stunk for years. The vast majority of fans are going to stand and give their old hockey hero a final big cheer. At the same time, the two smaller factions — the haters and the Hall-o-philes — can’t stand one another and like to make themselves heard, so that dynamic will play out as well. If the Hall fanatics cheer a bit too loudly, such as if Hall scores, you can bet that will incite the haters to boo loudly.

Hell, if I saw some guy in a Hall #4 Oilers sweater cheering on a player from the other team scoring, I would get grumpy about it as well. At the same time, if a fan buys a ticket, they can cheer or boo for whomever they want, and I’m good with that. I’d be more upset about the whole thing if the Oilers and Adam Larsson were really stinking it out right now, but that’s far from the case.

In the end, and so long as the Oilers keep improving, my own bet is that most Oilers fans won’t be giving much thought to Hall going forward, just as he’s clearly moving on himself in New Jersey. There’s been no shortage of obsessive chatter to date, but it’s slowly fading, and so long as the deal goes as expected — with Hall doing about as well as ever in New Jersey and the Oilers gradually improving as a team without him (and due to all kinds of factors, but the acquisition of several useful Top 4 d-men being high on the list) — the attention of most fans will focus on what is right now, not what possibly have been with Hall, good or bad.

My favourite fan comment about Hall? It comes from fan Matthew Panasiuk, and it’s more of a general comment about being a happy fan of an entertaining team, as opposed to being an armchair coach or GM who thinks they’re actually a whole lot smarter than the actual coach or GM.

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